The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus with a glass/glass-ceramic panel, which has at least one cooking area and a gas burner, which produces an open flame. The cooking apparatus has a concentric mechanically fixed cooking vessel support concentric to the gas burner that has feet and a resting or bearing surface on which a cooking vessel is supported or rests.
Cooking arrangements including glass-ceramic panels providing cooking surfaces and cooking areas, which are heated electrically, have been known for more than two decades. These glass-ceramic cooking areas are valued primarily because of their pleasing appearance, their plane surfaces and easy cleaning. Because of the definite and valued advantages that glass-ceramic materials provided as cooking surface materials, these materials have now been used for several years in gas cooking units or cooking units with electrically heated cooking zones in combination with gas burners, the so-called mixed units.
Two types of gas cooking units have been built. In a first type a gas burner is provided which is arranged under the cooking area of a closed glass-ceramic panel. This sort of gas cooking unit is, for example, described in DE 43 26 945 C2.
In a second type of cooking unit of this kind conventional atmospheric gas burners, i.e. those with an open flame, are inserted through respective openings in the glass-ceramic panel.
For example, a cooking unit with a gas burner of this latter type with an open flame, as it is described in DE 195 05 469 C1, forms the starting point for the present invention, i.e. the present invention is an improved cooking unit of this type.
The previously described cooking apparatus with a glass/glass-ceramic panel, which has at least one cooking area with a gas burner with an open flame, requires a vessel support. This vessel support has a standing or resting surface for a cooking vessel with feet attached to it and is placed on the glass/glass-ceramic panel. This cooking vessel support must be arranged so that it is concentric to the gas burner and fixed in position, so that the energy transfer from the burner to the cooking vessel is optimum.
The attachment and centering of the vessel support in known cooking units with glass-ceramic cooking surfaces and gas burners integrated in them occurs by means of the cover for the atmospheric gas burner. Alternatively it occurs by means of impressions in an adapter plate between the gas burner and the glass-ceramic panel.
It is also known to center the vessel support by impressions in the cooking surface frame in a currently marketed product. The impressions must be formed so that the cooking vessel support is definitely centered in its resting position.
The disadvantage of the currently marketed embodiments of the device for fixing the cooking vessel support in position involves the expensive form for the gas burner, in cases in which it is used as the centering means. In cases in which an adapter plate is used or with a cooking area frame having a complicated form, these components are disadvantageously expensive and prevent a flexible interchangeable parts system for part replacement from being developed. Furthermore parts with impressions are difficult to clean.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cooking apparatus with a cooking vessel support of the above-described kind, which has means for fixing the cooking vessel support in an advantageously centered position over the gas burner, that is economical, flexible to manufacture and easy to clean.
These objects, and others which will be made more apparent hereinafter, are attained in a cooking apparatus comprising a glass panel or a glass-ceramic panel, which as at least one cooking area, a gas burner providing an open flame, a cooking vessel support including feet and a resting surface for a cooking vessel placed on the cooking vessel support.
According to the invention the glass/glass-ceramic panel has a foot holding device to holding the cooking vessel support in a fixed position on it. This foot holding device advantageously comprises a plurality of foot holders for the respective feet of the cooking vessel support.
In contrast to the state of the art according to the present invention fixing points for the feet of the cooking vessel support are definitely located immediately on the cooking surface, the glass/glass-ceramic panel. The foot holders are economical, flexible to manufacture and easy to clean.
The cooking vessel support is easily fixed by the foot holding device when the foot holders include depressed regions formed in the glass/glass-ceramic panel, which are adapted to the shape of the feet ends. A satisfactory controllable technique for forming the depressed regions in the glass/glass-ceramic panel has been developed in the meantime. In this method the foot holders formed by partially depressed or sunken potions in the glass/glass-ceramic panel can be directly formed during the manufacture of the glass/glass-ceramic panel or in a separate manufacturing step.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the cooking unit can also be made with foot holders formed by grinding the depressed regions out of the glass/glass-ceramic panel, so that they fit the shape of the respective foot ends.
The grinding out can occur after the ceramicizing of glass-ceramic panel or already in the non-ceramicized green-glass state by means of known grinding methods.
The foot holders themselves need not be made directly in the material of the glass/glass-ceramic panel. Various embodiments of the invention can also be designed so that the foot holders are formed by respective foot holding parts mounted on the glass/glass-ceramic panel, provided with cavities or recesses for the receiving and holding the foot ends fixed in position on the glass/glass-ceramic panel. These foot holding parts can be made comparatively easily and can be formed in a variety of different ways and mounted on the glass/glass-ceramic panel.
According to a first embodiment of the invention the foot holding parts are each formed in one piece and can be mounted as a whole on the glass/glass-ceramic panel. These foot-holding devices must then be cleaned xe2x80x9cin situxe2x80x9d, i.e. in the attached or mounted state.
This latter difficulty may be avoided when the individual foot holding device or holder is formed in two-parts, with a base part, which is attached to the glass/glass-ceramic panel, and with an upper part that is removable from the base part.
The removable upper part of the foot holder can then be separated from the cooking unit and cleaned, e.g. in a washing machine.
A series of possibilities are available to one skilled in the art for mounting or attaching these foot holders. In embodiments of the invention in which the foot holder is in one piece, the foot holder as a whole may be glued to the glass/glass-ceramic panel. In other embodiments in which the foot holder is formed in two parts, the side of the base part facing the cooking surface may be glued to the glass/glass-ceramic panel. Suitable glue (for example, high temperature silicone glue) with lasting adhesive properties is available to one skilled in the arts.
According to another embodiment of the invention the arrangement is designed so that each foot holder has an extension on its side that is attached to the glass/glass-ceramic panel. This extension or protrusion is received and mechanically fixed in a suitable passage in the glass/glass-ceramic panel.
When each foot holder is attached to the glass/glass-ceramic panel in this manner the foot holder may be taken out of the glass/glass-ceramic panel for the purpose of cleaning and replacement.
This is particularly easy when the extension is provided with a thread for screwing into a sleeve in a passage or hole provided in the glass/glass-ceramic panel.
Alternatively to the screw connection the projection of the foot holder part can also be clamped in a suitable passage in the glass-ceramic panel by means of a spring device. It is particularly advantageous when the projection has a structure, preferably grooved or rifled, adapted for insertion into a sleeve in the passage.
The foot holder according to the invention described up to now has a depression or cavity, in which a foot of the cooking vessel support rests. These depressions or cavities, as explained previously, can be formed by sunken or ground out regions of the glass/glass-ceramic panel, or can be formed by suitable recesses or depressions in a separate molded part or stud, which is attached to the glass/glass-ceramic panel.
According to another alternative embodiment of the invention raised regions of the glass/glass-ceramic panel form the respective foot holders.
The top of these raised regions can be formed in a variety of ways.
Advantageously the raised regions can be already formed during the manufacture of the glass/glass-ceramic panel. That is according to a further embodiment of the invention they can be formed immediately in the material of the glass/glass-ceramic panel by providing impressions or pushed-up regions in the glass/glass-ceramic panel that are raised on or elevated from the cooking surface side of the glass/glass-ceramic panel. Alternatively the raised regions are formed by respective protruding enlarged or thickened portions of the glass/glass ceramic panel that project from the cooking surface.
The raised regions of the glass/glass-ceramic panel can be formed either as resting points in the vicinity of the cooking vessel support feet or alternatively as a rotationally symmetric ring around the gas burner. In this latter embodiment the circumferential ring can hold back cooking material that overflows in the burner region and prevent its flow off the entire cooking surface.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention the cooking apparatus is formed so that the resting surfaces of the cooking vessel support feet are adjusted to fit the shapes of the raised regions.
For positioning of the cooking vessel support feet according to a first variant of the invention the cooking unit is formed so that respective pins provided in the cooking vessel support feet engage in corresponding passages or recesses provided in the raised regions. Additional features are set forth in the appended dependent claims.